Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Jim, I really enjoyed your explanations, mods and the finished product...dang that runs sweetly!

Rog

Thanks Rog and Daniel much appreciated.
I still need to do a little fine tuning on the hitting and missing but REALLY happy so far......they are a lot different than steam engines to work on!

Must wonder if perhaps the position of the adjustment that makes the point contact isn't the key to finding the best Hit & Miss functionality profile?!?!

Thanks Daniel and Gil, this is the nicest looking Chinese H&M engine that I have bought.

Seems like that clamping system is the Bee's Knees alright, but I suspect that a bit of slackness in tolerancing could render it inoperable. Grubscrews, set-screws and like forms of clamping are not all that bad except when attempting to use such methods on a hardened shaft that has no flat, recess nor spot-hole for the screw to set against to prevent slippage and rotation. Super simple to mark the preferred location to land the setscrew on the shaft, then simply drill, file or mill a small detent flat or hole into that spot on the shaft and lightly cinch your screw down onto it!

Also, angling the alignment of the axis of the setscrew so that your tool, be it Allen wrench or screwdriver, is clear of the flywheel rim is usually a good idea, while having a slight angle of impingement of the screw on the shaft it is to grip, can be a good idea as well, if properly done.

Daniel if you ever get an engine with this new (or copied) wheel hub system you will be an instant convert.
I've read countless stories of people who stripped the soft as butter allen screws by trying to over torque them to stop spinning flywheels and they are a major PITA
to drill out and remove and a lot of folks aren't set up to do it.
Even just thumb pressure on the hub locks it in place, in testing the gov and taking the wheel off and on many times I've just for sake of time put one bolt in and
it holds it firmly in place.

So Jim, what is that system comprised of? A cone tapered, split inner hub that acts like a collet to grip the shaft as it is drawn into a tapered bore in the flywheel by the cinch bolts?

If you build yourself an engine, pulley or new flywheel for something in the future, are you going to be machining and using this system yourself, taking many hours of close and careful work, or are you just going to drill and tap for a set screw with a flat on the shaft that will do the job fine with 15 minutes work? Granted, if not done correctly a setscrew clamping system on a fully round shaft can and will cause trouble for someone who doesn't do it properly but works fine if well done.

I built a collet chuck for my lathe once and can tell you that mating tapers and sizing them to properly perform their function is not quick nor easy and is fraught with great potential for failure and scrap!!!

In truth even a keyway is an easier endeavor, though it does want specialized tooling (a broach and a way to properly use it) to accomplish that method of securing a flywheel as well.

When properly done, CNC machining can make a setup like this with reasonable ease, not so a home machinist using traditional tooling and methods.

Nope, certainly did not miss that comment, but it does seem like we are talking past each other somehow.

So, what is the functional basis of their method of securing to a shaft? Did my "guesstimated" description even come close to how it works?